Jane & Edward is a modern day retelling of Jane Eyre set in Toronto.

Jane Raine was orphaned at 13 when her only living relative, her father, died. It was sudden and so nothing was set up for her and she went into foster care. After aging out of the system, Jane worked as a waitress at a burger chain just scraping by until she overheard one of her coworkers talk about going to school for a year to become a legal secretary.

Cut to a year later, and Jane is being placed in a job in a very posh law office downtown (think Wall Street but in Canada). She’s wondering how she got such an amazing opportunity off the bat until it becomes clear that the lawyer she’s to work under is wild and unpredictable and thus unable to keep any secretaries. Our modern Edward Rochester, Edward Rosen.

I found the pacing of this book and their relationship to be very odd. Where was the chemistry? The love declarations happened right around halfway through. It didn’t have very much buildup and honestly, a lot of the dialogue was either just banter or came across as quirky (and not from Jane, from Edward). I couldn’t really buy in to him as a romantic interest until there were a few moments of tension.

The author also decided that right in the middle of a love declaration, she’d use the phrase “verbal diarrhea” which was extremely jarring.

Rosen baits Jane into making her confession first and then says “Right. Well, I wanted you to want me, and I wanted you to say it first so I could be sure my feelings were welcomed. You started talking about Isabelle, and I suddenly realized jealous might do the trick. Clever, right?” In the middle of a sentence. His whole vibe is just very immature and odd, especially for a man 10 years Jane’s senior. He does call her sweetheart later, which I did find somewhat redeeming.

Then in chapter 22, Jane is having a conversation with a colleague and says, “What’s wrong with wanting to read Charlotte Brontë? I’ve been effing living it.” Which honestly was way too on the nose and off putting for a retelling. Jane also uses dumpster fire in a sentence shortly thereafter so maybe the dialogue in general just doesn’t work for me in the book.

The real thing that led this to being a 3 ⭐️ instead of 3.5 or 4 ⭐️ is the way that the situation with Rosen’s wife was “resolved”. It cheapened everything. I had to put the book down when I read it.

And the epilogue, 2 years later, still had the same cheesy surface level teasing and smart people speak between Jane and Edward and just…did not feel realistic for a real relationship.

But! I did finish this in two days. I enjoyed the setting and modern translation. The execution was just lacking for me. But if you’re in dire need of a Jane Eyre retelling, this might be just the thing for you.

Thank you to Berkley Romance and NetGalley for an eARC.